


For A Night

by lipsstainedbloodred



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, M/M, Past Character Death, archived from cigarettesmokeandexyracquets blog, ghost!neil, halloween creation event, vampire!Andrew
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 09:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17040779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lipsstainedbloodred/pseuds/lipsstainedbloodred
Summary: Neil craves Halloween night. The one night a year that the dead walk among the living.





	For A Night

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted Oct. 18, 2017 to cigarettesmokeandexyracquets

Halloween night is a time of importance for those outside of the mortal realm. It is a time where ghosts and ghouls, witches and werewolves, the undead and the newly dead have full reign to pass back and forth as they please. Those are the shadows you see out of the corner of your eye, the leaves that make haunting shapes but if you blink it’s gone, the odd noises from two rooms away but it’s getting closer and closer. Neil Josten craves Halloween night. Dead now for more than twenty years he feels the urge pull deep from inside of him. 

He wanders the streets from sun down to sun up, finally able see and be seen. Some ghosts use this as an opportunity to see loved ones or scare teenagers out in decrepit graveyards, but Neil just likes roaming aimlessly, watching over trick-or-treater’s and observing families from afar. No one cared about Neil Josten when he was alive, so no one goes looking for him in his death.

He’s okay with that. He’s been okay with that for years now. Death isn’t a frightening thing, just a thing that happens after life. There were things far worse than death, his father had been one of those things. 

Neil’s wandering through a neighborhood in South Carolina, watching a group of girls sling toilet paper into the trees of a nice looking two-story home, when he catches a glimpse of blond hair. The moonlight turns the blond to a silky silver and it’s gone so quick Neil almost wonders if he imagined it. He finds himself drawn in that direction, down an alley and around a corner and there! Again! But gone so quick.

The compulsion is stronger now, and his brisk walk breaks into a jog and then a sprint. Past shops and alleys, he almost barrels fully into a woman and child dressed as skeletons and doesn’t apologize despite her angry shout, he turns a corner and he’s in a full on sprint. Where, where? There!

He slows to a stop in front of a playground, the wind howls and rocks rusted old playground toys. The swings move despite no one being in them, the merry-go-round creeks eerily. “Hello?” Neil asks.

It smells like cigarette smoke here, like whisps of it are burned into the air. He feels cold air tickle the back of his neck, like a hand barely resting its weight there. “Why did you bring me here?” Neil asks, “I was busy.”

“You weren’t busy,” A voice says behind him and Neil turns.

There’s a man with blond hair and haunting gold eyes standing three feet away from him. The bored look on his face seems permanently etched there, and he regards Neil cooly, as though bringing Neil here was a waste of time. As though he hadn’t been the one to bring Neil here in the first place.

“And you are?” Neil asks, raising an eyebrow.

The man’s eyes narrow, “You don’t remember?” He asks, and then waves a hand dismissively, “Of course you don’t, you never do.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s been a long time Abram.”

It’s like being electrocuted, like locks and tumblers being slid into place filling gaps in his memory. He remembers a team and a sport, kisses and touches, a bus ride and staring like there was only one thing in the world that made sense and that was, “Andrew?”

“Ding-ding, we have a winner.”

“Andrew,” Neil whispers, his eyes wide, “God, Andrew, how could I-”

“You’re a ghost Neil,” Andrew reminds him, “It’s hard to remember when you’re barely more than a memory yourself.”

“Can I touch you?” Neil asks.

“Yes,” Andrew replies.

Neil reaches out and slides his fingers into Andrew’s hair, cupping the back of his head. He marvels at the fact that he can touch, that he can be touched, and his chest is giddy with it. He loves Halloween. “Are you dead too?” Neil asks because he has to.

Andrew tilts his head up and Neil makes out small punctre wounds at the base of his throat. “Not quite,” Andrew says dryly.

“Can I?”

Andrew nods and Neil places his lips there, soft and reverent. “You used to like it when I kissed your neck,” Neil says, “I remember.”

“That was your fetish, not mine,” Andrew says.

Neil hums against Andrew’s neck and presses in closer, Andrew is almost feverishly warm against his skin. “Do you find me every year?” Neil asks.

Andrew’s hands slide up under Neil’s shirt and rest against his ribs. Neil feels Andrew turn his head and press his cheek up against Neil’s temple. “No,” Andrew says, “Sometimes you find me. Sometimes we don’t see each other at all.”

“I don’t want to go away again,” Neil says.

“You never do,” Andrew says and his nails dig into Neil’s skin.

“We have until morning,” Neil says.

“I’m aware of the time we have left,” Andrew says and removes one hand from under Neil’s shirt so he can pull Neil up by the chin to kiss him. Neil folds against Andrew, seeking the warmth they’d had together before Neil was killed and Andrew was taken.

Andrew drags Neil down to the ground with him and they kiss until the morning sky starts to creep its way past the darkness of night. Andrew presses his forehead against Neil’s and just breathes, his hands flexing where their pressed into the dirt on either side of Neil’s head. “I have to go,” Andrew says into the quiet space between them.

Neil is already losing his hold on tangibility. His legs are always the first to go, invisibility creeping from the toes up. His legs are already go past his knees and Neil doesn’t want to go, he doesn’t want to leave Andrew again. It feels like all he ever does is leave Andrew and he aches.

I don’t want to lose you every year, Neil wants to say. Instead he says, “I know.”

“I’ll find you again,” Andrew says, and it feels like a promise. Andrew never breaks his promises.

Neil loses his thighs and his hips, the coldness creeping over his hands and stomach, but he doesn’t take his eyes off Andrew’s face, “I’ll miss you.”

Andrew scoffs, “You won’t.”

But Neil wants to, he wants to remember Andrew enough to miss him. And then like a trick of the light Andrew is gone, leaving behind the scent of cigarette smoke. Neil feels the coldness creep up past his chest to his shoulders and takes a breath, closing his eyes. “Happy Halloween, Andrew,” He says and lets himself slide away.


End file.
